It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.
It sucked and was absolutely shocking but it had no carryover effect. It has nothing to do with anything that happened in future seasons. The next year was a disaster because Woodard wasn’t healthy and the key returning guys never improved.
Setting the NCAA tournament record for the worst blowout loss in Final Four history was about as brutal as it gets, but certainly had no carryover effect. Lon got a pass for 2017, but did his worst coaching job at OU in 2018. He could not find a way to get anything close to max production out of the Trae Young season. When a team has zero chemistry, that falls on the head coach. Period. One thing about Lon was his amazing consistency at literally every stop. He left every coaching job better than he found it (the sign of a very good coach)...but he also left every school at least two years from their Lon Kruger peak. The best example was Florida. He did an amazing job leading them to a surprise Final Four appearance (they had no tradition prior), but had a losing record in his last year there a couple years later. The main reason I respect the heck out of him, though, was because he won with class and integrity instead of scandals and nonsense.
